AMERICUS — Parents and students will be paying more to attend Georgia’s public schools in the fall after the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents voted to raise tuition during its meeting Tuesday on the campus of Georgia Southwestern State University.

The board also extended for another year a “special mandatory fee” that was originally to have lasted only one year to tide the state’s 35 public colleges and universities over during cuts in the state budget following the recent recession. It began in 2009 and was to expire this June.

Undergraduate tuition rises 2.5 percent at all schools, including Savannah State University, Armstrong Atlantic State University and Georgia Southern. Those attending three research institutions will see a bigger jump. At Georgia State University, the increase will be 3.5 percent, at the University of Georgia 5 percent and at Georgia Tech 6 percent.

A higher increase at the research schools is to get them closer to the average charged by similar state schools in other parts of the country.

“You don’t want to be at the top, and you don’t want to be at the bottom. We try to be a the median,” Chancellor Hank Huckaby said. “... Part of it is market driven. You look at the quality of what they are getting for the price they are paying. Compare that to other schools. Quite frankly, our tuition, all of our schools, is still a bargain. ”

While renewing the mandatory fee, the board granted some exemptions. Active-duty military get a 100 percent exemption while students taking fewer than 5 hours per semester get half off. Also exempt will be students who attend college while still inhigh school. Students enrolled in more than one college will only pay the fee once.

The fee generates $120 million yearly, according to John Brown, vice chancellor for fiscal affairs.

“We are not at a point where we want to put the special institution fee in policy for good,” he said. “We hope there will be a day when we can roll that back. ... If we sunset the special institution fee at this point, that would put the system in a bad way.”

The April meeting is the traditional time for budget adjustments, including changes in fees and tuition because it’s the first regular meeting after the legislature passes the next year’s appropriation.

The General Assembly boosted what it allocated to the University System’s 35 public colleges and universities by $89 million or 5.16 percent and provided funds for the students who have enrolled since the last state budget at the full amount in the formula in state law for per-student appropriations. However, that didn’t come close to restoring all of the cuts dealt every year since the last recession which reduced the base for the increase.

Most observers expected a tuition bump, and University of Georgia President Michael Adams had been quoted as predicting one. Experts estimate the inflation rate for all goods and services in the overall economy is only 2 percent, which is less than the tuition hike and the appropriations boost.

University System officials have also noted often that tuition at Georgia’s public schools are lower than the state schools in neighboring states and nationally. They say Georgia students and parents get a bargain and express their desire to get closer to the average as a way to reflect the prestige they say Georgia institutions deserve.

“They need to be more in the arena of their peer institutions,” Brown said.

Still, UGA and Georgia State administrators asked to hold the boost for out-of-state students to just 1 percent to keep them competitive.

Graduate tuition will also increase from 3-6 percent, depending on the program. The variation is to try to keep the tuition competitive.

Next month, the board will consider pay increases for the presidents of those colleges, although indications suggest raises may be few and small.

NEW TUITIONS

Here is what the new tuition under the schedule approved Tuesday by the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents. The new rates will apply during the fall semester.